Interview with LaRoyce Hawkins

June 2016 | LaRoyce Hawkins is a powerful actor and comedian and entertains us on a weekly basis as Kevin Atwater on "Chicago P.D." which currently airs on AXN in Germany. We talked to LaRoyce Hawkins over the phone about his motivation in life, his audition for "Chicago PD", his wishes for the upcoming fourth season and his character Kevin Atwater who is as powerful as LaRoyce himself.

Foto: LaRoyce Hawkins, Chicago P.D. - Copyright: 2014 NBC Studios. All Rights Reserved.
LaRoyce Hawkins, Chicago P.D.
© 2014 NBC Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Note: © myFanbase 2016 - The interview is exclusive to myFanbase and may not be published on other websites or the like. You may share the first two questions (up to 180 words) if you link back to this site. Translations other than English and German may be posted with full credit including the link to this site.

#BePowerful is THE message you're spreading out to the world. For everyone who hasn't heard about it yet: What do you mean by that?

Be Powerful is truly all about discovering a gift and seem the gift in a way that helps people become the most powerful version of yourself. And so what I – there is this quote that I found in college, that was given to me by my grandfather. And he said that at 211 degree Fahrenheit water gets very very hot, but it doesn't boil until 212 degree and so go that extra degree. Because at 212 degree water can boil and create steam and that steam is powerful enough to move locomotives. So go that extra degree and be powerful enough to move the things around in your life. Ever since I heard that quote be powerful is just something that has allow me to dig deep, something that has allow me to work hard, to make necessary sacrifices that I had to do for my family, my career or things like that. And so it just became something that moved me. And before I knew it, it was moving more than just myself but my family and friends and now people all around the world who care to listen. So that is kind of where #BePowerful came from.

Since you grew up in Chicago, what is the go-to place everyone should visit while staying in the windy city?

I'm a big fan of food and so I just like to eat – I know most people do. I always tell people if you're in Chicago you gotta go get the best burger in the world – no disrespect to Germany, but I'm pretty sure this burger is pretty powerful. It's at Au Cheval, it's right in the West Loop of Chicago. I honestly just had someone ask me 'where should I go', they were two young ladies and they were here for the weekend and they were like 'What should we do?' and I was like 'Go to Au Cheval', because you need that burger in your life.

Great, I'll remember that. And as a standup comedian you have worked with a multitude of talented comedians. Who is the funniest person you have ever met?

The funniest person I've ever met?

Yes

I've met some real funny people. I've met some people who – actually it's kind of hard to say as far the famous people we might know and love. I was just in L.A. and I just did a show that Mike Epps was on and he was hilarious. But personally if I could just give a shout out for like some of the comedians that I know personally, I'm real good friends with this comedian named T-Murph who's out of Chicago. He is hilarious. If you're familiar with Lil Rel who is on "The Carmichael Show" on NBC and another show ["Friends of the People"] on TruTV. He's hilarious. He's from my hometown Harvey, Illinois. You know I just come from a place where people are pretty hilarious. I mean Chicago bears people like Bernie Mac. And people of that caliber.

#BePowerful Ent. Presents.. LaRoyceHawkins • JeffGibbs #NothinButLove Pt.II Coming Soon..?? Let's thank @mr.patton First

Ein von LaRoyce Hawkins (@roycedavoyce) gepostetes Foto am


Moving on to "Chicago PD": Your character Kevin Atwater is your first big role on television. Can you tell us a bit about your audition?

The audition was great. It was one of these situation. I've been auditioned for Chicago Fire previously and I was pretty close to being on Chicago Fire as a regular. And so when the idea of Chicago PD came I really worked hard on it, because I felt like it would honestly be a pretty good fit for me and I knew that they were familiar with me and my audition style and I just really had to go in there. And I was kind of myself, but in this world of fighting crime that I am very familiar with now, but I wasn't that much at that time. So well I knew that the producers were familiar with me and I thought I just be myself and hopefully they see fit to help me in the game and that's kind of what happened. It was a real good experience. I auditioned for a character who never really made it to the actual series. I didn't know who Kevin Atwater was when my agent said I booked Kevin Atwater, cause I didn't necessary auditioned for Kevin Atwater. I just kind of auditioned for a cop. And before I knew it they were like this one should be Kevin Atwater and I was like 'Okay I can figure that out'. But my favorite part of that is – you know I'm from Harvey specifically which is a south suburb of Chicago. And the writers and producers, I think they liked that, they liked that I was actually from here and they made Atwater from Harvey which moving forward made it a lot easier and a little more fun to play a guy that is from my hometown. And when I find myself in a situation where I'm not sure what Atwater would do or I'm not really sure how to kind of react to a certain thing, I only refer to my neighborhood and I use that as a reference to help me with this character and that is great.

"Chicago PD" makes clear that there is no black and white and every character has their good and bad sides. What are Kevin Atwater's good and bad sides?

I think he is a great friend. If you think about his background, he knows how to be part of a team, he knows he is a powerful teamplayer, he just knows how to play his role. He grew up playing basketball in Harvey. He has lots of friends and he has to be loyal. And so I think one of the best things about Atwater is that he is loyal. He is one of the biggest team players that the unit has and understands that his role is important. And as far as what is bad about him, I not really sure if there's too much bad about him besides the fact that you don't want to be on his bad side. He is very passionate about his family, about his friends, about the city of Chicago and so anybody who is on the other hand of that table, trying anything to harm Chicago citizens – you know I don't think that you want to be in Kevin Atwater's way.

Every now and then the show let it drop that Kevin Atwater is THE go-to guy to get something done (party planning, fixing a car, etc.). Was that something in the script or did it evolve with the time?

I think it kind of evolved. He grew up in the neighborhood where you can pretty much get everything done for little to no money if you just know the right guy, the right person. And so you know we started off with this scene where Atwater had connections for throwing parties, he's real good at stuff like that. He know who can fix a car or vehicle. He knows probably where to get a couch if you want something cheap. Atwater is actually pretty cheap. They used the fact that he doesn't like to spend that much money as a way to evolve that storyline of how he is capable of cutting corners. He knows a guy for pretty much everything. So whatever you need Atwater knows somebody who knows somebody.

Your character got promoted to Intelligence at the end of season one. Did your everyday work on the show change after that? And if so in what kind of way?

Yeah it did, it definitely did. I just worked a lot more. And it is really not necessarily more lines or more things to study or more things to worry about. It's just you know the intelligence unit covers the A story pretty much. So you got the A and the B story, and the uniformed cops they cover the B story and what you have for the A story is pretty much what drives the episode. So to be around for what drives the episode actually means that you have to work a little bit more, but I love it. I love working. I much rather be at work than anywhere else.

If you had to pick a theme song for Kevin, which one would it be?

I think, you know Atwater is really ambitious. One of the things that I like to do is I gave Atwater a theme every season. So for the second season his theme was ambition. He was pretty much finding his place in intelligence and finding his place in the unit, expanding his role. And it's kind of connective to what I had to do. Because as my responsibilities grew as an actor so did my responsibilities grew as a character. So the theme for season two was all about ambition. Season one - everything was kind of new and nostalgic in a sense – everything was different. It was really about learning and growing and getting used to the business and the industry and being on television and those kind of things. And so I actually…

Sorry I didn't get the last sentence, something was wrong with the signal.

I was just talking about how each and every season I like to give Atwater a theme about what is going on in his life, what's going on in his head and that kind of drives the way I play and experience him throughout the season.

"Chicago P.D." got picked up for a fourth season! Congrats to that!

Thank you

What is your biggest wish for your character in the upcoming season?

I just hope that Atwater can grow more in his career. He has aspiration to be a detective, he has aspiration to just climb the ladder within this police business. And I hope he gets a lot of opportunities. It would be fun to have something like a love interest. Maybe a pretty young lady for him to think about every now and then. Or maybe a few young ladies. It is always fun as an actor or as an artist to play romance and things like that.

Now that out time is almost up, my last question is: Since myFanbase is an online magazine about U.S. television shows, what are your favorite shows?

I pretty much just watch and keep up with sports a lot. My TV is always on at ESPN sports channel. But as far as other shows I like Netflix and I just turn on "House of Cards" or "Orange Is the New Black". I'm a big "Bob's Burgers" fan. It's a cartoon and it's my groove.

Thank you so much for taking the time.

Thank you very much, have a good time.


Annika Leichner - myFanbase

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